The salvage team in charge of the operation off Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital, has received huge offers from collectors and businessmen keen to own the 6ft-wide emblem, which was mounted on the stern of the warship.

It said a collector in south-east Asia had offered $15 million (£8.6 million) and the owner of an American hotel chain had topped that with $26 million (£15 million).

Capt Hans Langsdorff scuttled the Graf Spee on Dec 17, 1939, to prevent it from falling into British hands. After the eagle was pulled from the seabed last Friday archaeologists covered the swastika on which it stands for fear of causing offence. But it has now gone on display with the swastika in full view at a hotel in Montevideo.

Mensun Bound, 54, a marine archaeologist from Oxford University who has been working on the £800,000 salvage operation since 1998, said: "This whole thing has become a bit sensational.

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"The eagle is staggeringly spectacular but interest in it has snowballed in a way that we never expected. Usually when you do this kind of job you are greeted by back-slapping and Champagne. But this thing, when it came out of the sea, was greeted with absolute silence. When you look at the swastika, you are looking at the heart of darkness."

Whatever the emblem fetches, the team's backer is required to split the proceeds with the Uruguayan government.